5-minutes with Ellen from Milk and Water Baking Co.

Today we were thrilled to chat to Ellen from Milk and Water Baking Co who is a 3rd generation baker based in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.

Ellen is currently taking the baking world by storm with her incredibly artistic piping and pretty dessert creations and I am so excited to share a couple of insights from Ellen into how she achieves this look and the inspiration behind her creations.

As soon as I stumbled onto Ellen’s instagram page my first thoughts were “how does Ellen create that magical icing”?! Keep scrolling down to learn how she does it!

Hi Ellen, can you start by giving us a bit of background about your work?

I made my first rosette covered cake about 2 years ago to bring to a dinner party to impress some new friends. I showed a co-worker the picture and she was super impressed and wanted to buy one off me for a party.I just kept getting asked from there on and with more orders.

I started off by doing a simple rosette using the Wilton cakes 1M tip. As I became comfortable with that technique I began using different colours and tips.

I've been able to be more creative and practice my skills. People usually give me some colours that co-ordinate with their event and say "do whatever you want!" which I love.

What is the inspiration behind your creations?

My creations are usually inspired by those who order them! In the beginning it was always for friends or family so I would try to create something beautiful that represented that person. Sometimes I would draw inspiration from different art or patterns in my home and pull colours from things like that.

Do you have any tips for those wanting to recreate this look?

The piping tips that I mostly use are Wilton's 1M, 22, 104, and other smaller open star tips. I mix up a few different colours of buttercream and usually 'paint' a stripe up one side of the piping bag, and then spoon in the other colour. Sometimes I just spoon colour after colour on top of each other and see what comes out!

Can you share any details about your recipes?

I use the Wilton Cakes buttercream recipe which can be found on their website. It is the same recipe my grandmother used. I use a cake recipe that was given to me by my mom which is top secret, since it is the greatest ever!